Fruit for Breakfast: Benefits and Ideas

One of the most common tips you’ll ever hear about nutrition: “have good breakfast”, “don’t skip breakfast” or the classic “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”. I agree, you should never ever skip breakfast, and believe me as a former breakfast hater I understand the struggle. When I was in school I use to skip breakfast every single day, but over the last few months I have started to realize how important it is for my body and my mind to have a nutritious breakfast. Not only to be healthier, but to function better. There is a lot of debate on what you should be having for breakfast and whether or not it should be packed with animal proteins or with carbs. In this post I will write about my approach: a whole lot of fruit.

I will start by telling you the benefits of a fruitful breakfast and then I will give you my favorite recipes. So here are some of the reasons you should start having fruit for breakfast:

Enhance the Detoxification Phase:

Between 7 and 11am, the body is going through the heaviest phase of detoxification. Eating fruit will help contribute healing energy to this detoxification process, instead of hamper it by filling your body with anti-detox foods like fatty animal products that are hard to digest.

Stimulate the Digestive Track:

Eating fruit for breakfast infuses the body with beneficial enzymes, fiber and probiotics that help stimulate digestive juices in the stomach and push out old waste matter from the day before. Fruit fiber cleans the colon like a broom, leaving you feeling light and refreshed.

Wake Up the Body:

Natural fruit sugars are just the thing the body needs upon waking up. Instead of reaching for your coffee, trying making a coffee replacement smoothie that will help keep the brain sharp and energized. Remember, the brain runs off glucose, so if you want to stay focused throughout the day, then eat a nice big water-dense fruit meal for breakfast

Excess-Weight Loss

Fruit provides the body with quality nutrition and also helps release excess toxins by pushing out old waste matter from the intestines. Eating plenty of fruit in the morning (and throughout the rest of the day) gets rid of excess toxicity and waste storage, which ultimately leads to weight loss in the end. Most people think that if they eat a heavy animal-protein rich meal in the morning that they will eat less later in the day – but this, in fact, has not been found to be true. People who consume a heavy meal in the morning also tend to eat heavier later in the day too, which contribute to inevitable weight gain.

Boost your Immune System:

A smoothie for breakfast compared to eggs or bacon is a lot better for your immune system and overall health. Fruit is high in vitamin C and antioxidants, which strengthen the immune system and ward off any invading bacteria and microbes.

Create an Alkaline Environment for the Body:

The first thing people think when they eat fruit is that it is too acidic – this is in fact not true. Lemons are actually one of the most alkaline fruits on the planet. They may be acidic in form, but once they reach the stomach, the minerals (like potassium and sodium) disassociate to make it alkaline (via a variety of metabolic processes). All fruit is alkaline, so make sure you eat plenty of it in the morning.

Strengthen the Heart:

Fruit is packed with beneficial vitamins, minerals, crucial phytonutrients and antioxidants that contribute to lower cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure – both of which contribute to a healthier, stronger heart and prevent against cardiovascular disease.

These are all benefits I saw in myself after weeks of having fruit filled smoothies every morning. But more than anything it just tastes so good! I used to have a lot constipation and bloating and it is gone now, I got a flatter tummy and loads of energy.

If your concerns when having a fruitful breakfast are not eating protein, then fear no more. people don’t usually have protein deficiency, we spend far too much time worrying about our protein intake when we really don’t need as much as advertised. Fruit has protein and so do other plant-based foods. There is no need for you to have yogurt, eggs or dairy to get that protein. Everything is better in moderation. Eating too much protein also isn’t good, it has been linked to kidney disease, cancer, osteoporosis and kidney stones. http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit-protein

The Focus should be switched from protein to fiber, we are not getting enough fiber and that is causing us to have more stomach problems. Fiber is good, fiber is your friend! obviously don’t go overboard here either, fruits have calories so check that, but don’t fear fruit. So okay we must eat fruit everyday but why for breakfast?

Fruit should be eaten alone or with other fruit on an empty stomach.

This is because when fruit is eaten, the digestive process works very quickly and our body uses different enzymes to digest the fruit. The simple sugars contained in fruit need time to be completely absorbed by your body. When fruits are eaten alone, your stomach can more easily process all of the nutrients, fiber and the simple sugars contained in the fruit. This is the optimal ‘proper way’ to benefit from the fruit you eat. If you eat fruit close to a meal, especially right after a larger meal and combine with other foods, it’s held in the stomach too long along with other foods and will rot and ferment in the gut. If you experience indigestion, heartburn, burping and other digestive discomforts and you blame on the meal – it could be the combination of the food, the fermentation with fruit that causes your upset stomach. If left uncontrolled it could lead to other health problems that stem from the digestive tract.

According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you should consume between five and 13 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. This is equivalent to about 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups daily, depending on the amount of calories you need to consume for your weight and level of activity. On a recommended diet of 2000 calories a day to maintain my weight (if you want to lose your diet should be of fewer calories) this are my ideas for a fruitful breakfast:

My go-to Smoothie (420 – 462 calories)or approx. 7 servings

2 ripe medium bananas (210 calories)

10-15 frozen strawberries (40 – 60 calories)

1/2 to 3/4 cup of blueberries (41 – 63 calories)

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (approximately 112 calories)

1 passion fruit without seeds (17 calories)

*sometimes I add a few pieces of pineapple or a peach if I don’t have blueberries

Fresh Fruit Bowl (470 calories) or approx. 7 servings

1 cut up medium banana (105 calories)

1 cup sliced strawberries (53 calories)

1 cup of raspberries (65 calories)

1/2 cup of blueberries (41 calories)

1 cup of pineapple chunks (82 calories)

1 cup of grapes (62 calories)

1 cut orange (62 calories)

As for now these are my go to recipes for breakfast, I’ve been having them every morning for the last month and somehow I still wake up excited to have my fruit every day. I will eventually come up with more fruity breakfast ideas, and write a follow up post on that, and if you have any suggestions for me to try I’d be very happy to do so and maybe feature them in my next post. Thank you for reading and I hope you go fruit yourself!

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This blog is an invitation to join me in my journey to a more sustainable, healthy and happy lifestyle. I intend to use this platform as a form of self expression, whether it is for fashion, book reviews, health advice, advocacy for causes I feel strongly about or just simple thoughts.